Justice Agha Faisal to Lead Probe into Deadly Gul Plaza Inferno

The Sindh government officially appointed Justice Agha Faisal of the Sindh High Court to lead a single-member judicial commission investigating the catastrophic Gul Plaza fire. The blaze, which erupted on January 17 and took 36 hours to extinguish, claimed 73 lives and destroyed over 1,100 shops. Justice Faisal’s nomination by Chief Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput followed a period of political tension, during which opposition parties rejected a preliminary government report that blamed the incident on two children playing with matches.

The commission operates under a strict mandate to submit its findings within eight weeks. Key Terms of Reference (ToRs) include determining if the building’s construction and lease extensions violated laws, and evaluating whether mandatory fire detection and safety systems were in place. Justice Faisal will also examine the adequacy of the Rescue 1122 response and investigate reports of a critical delay in water supply to fire tenders. The commission is empowered to fix responsibility for any “acts of commission or omission” by government departments or building management.

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While the provincial government has already suspended several high-ranking officials from the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation and KMC, this judicial probe aims to provide a definitive account of the “negligence and carelessness” cited in the police FIR.

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